PhD : New light-responsive engineered living materials based on microalgae

Department profile:

Bionanoscience is a multidisciplinary department that is dedicated to the study of fundamental and applied biological questions with cutting-edge tools from biology, physics and nanotechnology. The department offers excellent technical facilities, including an advanced microscopy center.

Section profile:

The Aubin-Tam group is a dynamic and multidisciplinary research group interested in developing new bio-inspired and living materials.

Project description:

Nature fabricates materials with remarkable properties, having the ability to grow, move and sense their environment. Such dynamic and interactive materials are in strong contrast with man-made synthetic materials. Recent scientific interest has emerged to incorporate living cells into materials to form engineered living materials. While still underexplored, microalgae-based living materials are highly promising due to the light-responsiveness and photosynthetic activity of microalgae.

The aim of this project is to fabricate a light-responsive microalgae-based materials that use the photosynthetic activity of cells to control the response of the material as a whole.

The PhD student will devise fabrication approaches for porous hydrogel actuators, which can host microalgae cells. He/she will study how the material properties are locally affected by the presence and response of living cells.